Learning to write is integral to literacy learning and contemporary Australian children starting school deserve approaches to the teaching of writing that reflect contemporary understandings of literacies. One of their biggest challenges upon entering school is learning how to write. Their teachers are faced with an equally enormous challenge - teaching these children how to write using the English alphabetic system and written language conventions, without dampening their creativity or devaluing the meaning making systems they brought with them to school. How teachers respond to children's early attempts at meaning making and what they value helps to form children's attitudes towards writing and determine the paths their learning journeys follow.

A range of issues for supporting children's creation of multimodal texts, from the very first days at school, will be discussed and suggestions for ways forward presented.

The writing journey from 0-8 will be included in the day - with milestones shared with the audience.
Interactive writing will be considered as a tool to support early writing in the first two years of school.
The Transition from prior to school to school in terms of writing will be discussed.
Working with the families of young writers will be considered.FLYER